Transition and train crash his oath of office on a law book rather than on a Bible, as all his predecessors except John Quincy Adams, who
swore on a book of law, had done. He was the first president to deliver his inaugural address from memory. In it, he hailed an era of peace and prosperity at home and urged a vigorous assertion of U.S. interests in its foreign relations, including the "eminently important" acquisition of new territories. "The policy of my Administration", he said, "will not be deterred by any timid forebodings of evil from expansion." Avoiding the word "slavery", he emphasized his desire to put the "important subject" to rest and maintain a peaceful union. He alluded to his own personal tragedy, telling the crowd, "You have summoned me in my weakness. You must sustain me by your strength."
Administration and political strife In his
Cabinet appointments, Pierce sought to unite a party that was squabbling over the fruits of victory. Most in the party had not originally supported him for the nomination, and some had allied with the Free Soil party to gain victory in local elections. Pierce decided to allow each of the party's factions some appointments, even those that had not supported the Compromise of 1850. The Senate unanimously and immediately confirmed all of Pierce's Cabinet nominations. Factionalism between pro- and anti-administration Democrats ramped up quickly, especially within the New York Democratic Party. The more conservative Hardshell Democrats or "Hards" of New York were deeply skeptical of the Pierce administration, which was associated with Marcy (who became Secretary of State) and the more moderate New York faction, the Softshell Democrats or "Softs". died a little more than one month into his term, leaving a vacancy that could not be filled.|alt=Photograph of William R. King Buchanan had urged Pierce to consult Vice President-elect King in selecting the Cabinet, but Pierce did not do so—Pierce and King had not communicated since they had been selected as candidates in June 1852. By the start of 1853, King was severely ill with tuberculosis, and went to Cuba to recuperate. His condition deteriorated, and Congress passed a special law allowing him to be sworn in before the American consul in Havana on March 24. Wanting to die at home, he returned to his plantation in Alabama on April 17 and died the next day. The office of vice president remained vacant for the remainder of Pierce's term, as the Constitution then had no provision for filling the vacancy. This extended vacancy meant that for nearly the entirety of Pierce's presidency the
Senate President pro tempore, initially
David Atchison of Missouri, was next in line to the presidency. Pierce sought to run a more efficient and accountable government than his predecessors. Secretary
Robert McClelland reformed the
Interior Department, systematizing its operations, expanding the use of paper records, and going after fraud. Another of Pierce's reforms was to expand the role of the U.S. attorney general in appointing federal judges and attorneys, an important step in the eventual development of the
Justice Department. There was a vacancy on the Supreme Court—Fillmore, having failed to get Senate confirmation for his nominees, had offered it to newly elected Louisiana Senator
Judah P. Benjamin, who had declined. Pierce also offered the seat to Benjamin, but he persisted in his refusal, whereupon Pierce nominated
John Archibald Campbell, an advocate of states' rights; this was Pierce's only Supreme Court appointment.
Economic policy and internal improvements depicting Pierce|alt=Photograph of Indian Peace Medal Pierce charged
Treasury Secretary James Guthrie with reforming the
Treasury, which was inefficiently managed and had many unsettled accounts. Guthrie increased oversight of Treasury employees and tariff collectors, many of whom were withholding money from the government. Despite laws requiring funds to be held in the Treasury, large deposits remained in private banks under the Whig administrations. Guthrie reclaimed these funds and sought to prosecute corrupt officials, with mixed success.
Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, at Pierce's request, led surveys by the
Corps of Topographical Engineers of possible transcontinental railroad routes throughout the country. The Democratic Party had long rejected federal appropriations for internal improvements, but Davis felt that such a project could be justified as a Constitutional national security objective. Davis also deployed the
Army Corps of Engineers to supervise construction projects in the District of Columbia, including the expansion of the
United States Capitol and building of the
Washington Monument.
Foreign and military affairs The Pierce administration aligned with the expansionist
Young America movement, with Marcy leading the charge as secretary of state. Marcy sought to present to the world a distinctively American, republican image. He issued a circular recommending that U.S. diplomats wear "the simple dress of an American citizen" instead of the elaborate
diplomatic uniforms worn in European courts, and that they hire only American citizens to work in consulates. Marcy received international praise for his 73-page letter defending Austrian refugee
Martin Koszta, who had been captured abroad in mid-1853 by the Austrian government despite his intention to become a U.S. citizen. An advocate of a southern transcontinental route, Davis persuaded Pierce to send rail magnate
James Gadsden to Mexico to buy land for a potential railroad. Gadsden was also charged with renegotiating the provisions of the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which required the U.S. to prevent Native American raids into Mexico from New Mexico Territory. Gadsden negotiated a treaty with Mexican President
Antonio López de Santa Anna in December 1853, purchasing a large swath of land in the southwest. Negotiations were nearly derailed by
William Walker's
unauthorized expedition into Mexico, and so a clause was included charging the U.S. with combating future such attempts. Congress reduced the
Gadsden Purchase to the region now comprising southern
Arizona and part of southern New Mexico; the price was cut from $15 million to $10 million. Congress also included a protection clause for a private citizen, Albert G. Sloo, whose interests were threatened by the purchase. Pierce opposed the use of the federal government to prop up private industry and did not endorse the final version of the treaty, but it was ratified nonetheless. Relations with Great Britain needed resolution, as American fishermen were upset at the
British Royal Navy's increasing enforcement of Canadian
territorial waters. Marcy completed a trade reciprocity agreement with the British minister to Washington,
John Crampton, which reduced the need for British coastline enforcement. Buchanan was sent as minister to London to pressure the British government, which was slow to support a new treaty. A favorable reciprocity treaty was ratified in August 1854, which Pierce saw as a first step toward American annexation of Canada. While the administration negotiated with Britain over the
Canada–United States border, U.S. interests were also an issue in Central America, where the
Clayton–Bulwer Treaty of 1850 had failed to keep Britain from expanding its influence in the region. Gaining the advantage over Britain in the region was a key part of Pierce's expansionist goals. British consuls in the U.S. sought to enlist Americans for the
Crimean War in 1854, in violation of neutrality laws, and Pierce eventually expelled Crampton and three consuls. To Pierce's surprise, the British did not expel Buchanan in retaliation. In his December 1855 State of the Union message to Congress, Pierce had set forth the American case that Britain had violated the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. According to Buchanan, the British were impressed by the message and were rethinking their policy. Nevertheless, Buchanan was unable to get them to abandon their Central American possessions. The
Canadian-American Reciprocity Treaty was ratified by Congress, the British parliament, and Canada's colonial legislatures. Pierce's administration aroused sectional apprehensions when three U.S. diplomats in Europe drafted a proposal to the president to purchase Cuba from Spain for $120 million (USD), and justify the "wresting" of it from Spain if the offer were refused. The publication of the
Ostend Manifesto, which had been drawn up at Secretary of State Marcy's insistence, provoked the scorn of northerners, who viewed it as an attempt to annex a slave-holding possession to bolster Southern interests. It helped discredit the expansionist policy of
Manifest Destiny the Democratic Party had often supported. British-American competition in Central America was played out in Nicaragua and Honduras. In 1855 an American mercenary and
freebooter named
William Walker took an expeditionary force to Nicaragua, overthrew the existing government, and reinstituted slavery, with the hope of establishing a white-ruled society that would join the United States as a slave state. In May 1856 Pierce recognized the new government as the legitimate government of the country. In July, acting as an effective dictator, Walker declared himself president of Nicaragua. However, under pressure from
Cornelius Vanderbilt, who had commercial transit interests in the country, Walker was forced to leave the country in 1857. In 1860 he went to Honduras, where he was arrested by the
British Royal Navy, later tried for piracy and "filibusterism", and executed by a Honduran firing squad in 1860. Pierce favored expansion and a substantial reorganization of the military. Secretary of War Davis and Navy Secretary James C. Dobbin found the Army and Navy in poor condition, with insufficient forces, a reluctance to adopt new technology, and inefficient management. Under the Pierce administration, Commodore
Matthew C. Perry visited Japan (a venture originally planned under Fillmore) in an effort to expand trade to the East. Perry wanted to encroach on Asia by force, but Pierce and Dobbin pushed him to remain diplomatic. Perry signed a modest trade treaty with the Japanese
shogunate that was successfully ratified. The 1856 launch of the
USS Merrimac, one of six newly commissioned
steam frigates, was one of Pierce's "most personally satisfying" days in office.
Bleeding Kansas organized
Kansas (in pink) and
Nebraska Territory (yellow).|alt=Map The greatest challenge to the country's equilibrium during the Pierce administration was the passage of the
Kansas–Nebraska Act.
Organizing the largely unsettled
Nebraska Territory, which stretched from
Missouri to the
Rocky Mountains, and from Texas north to what is now the Canada–United States border, was a crucial part of Douglas's plans for western expansion. He wanted a transcontinental railroad with a link from Chicago to California, through the vast western territory. Organizing the territory was necessary for settlement as the land would not be surveyed nor put up for sale until a territorial government was authorized. Those from slave states had never been content with western limits on slavery, and felt it should be able to expand into territories procured with blood and treasure that had come, in part, from the South. Douglas and his allies planned to organize the territory and let local settlers
decide whether to allow slavery. This would repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820, as most of it was north of the 36°30′ N line the Missouri Compromise deemed "free". The territory would be split into a northern part, Nebraska, and a southern part,
Kansas, and the expectation was that Kansas would allow slavery and Nebraska would not. In the view of pro-slavery
Southern politicians, the Compromise of 1850 had already annulled the Missouri Compromise by admitting the state of California, including territory south of the compromise line, as a free state. Pierce had wanted to organize the Nebraska Territory without explicitly addressing the matter of slavery, but Douglas could not get enough Southern votes to accomplish this. Pierce was skeptical of the bill, knowing it would result in bitter opposition from the North. Douglas and Davis convinced him to support the bill regardless. It was tenaciously opposed by northerners such as Ohio Senator
Salmon P. Chase and Massachusetts Senator
Charles Sumner, who rallied public sentiment in the North against the bill. Northerners had been suspicious of the Gadsden Purchase, moves towards Cuba annexation, and the influence of slaveholding Cabinet members such as Davis, and saw the Nebraska bill as part of a pattern of southern aggression. The result was a political firestorm that did great damage to Pierce's presidency. Passage of the act coincided with the seizure of escaped slave
Anthony Burns in Boston. Northerners rallied in support of Burns, but Pierce was determined to follow the Fugitive Slave Act to the letter, and dispatched federal troops to enforce Burns's return to his Virginia owner despite furious crowds. The midterm congressional elections of 1854 and 1855 were devastating to the Democrats (as well as to the Whig Party, which was on its last legs). The Democrats lost almost every state outside the South. The administration's opponents in the North worked together to return opposition members to Congress, though only a few northern Whigs gained election. In Pierce's New Hampshire, hitherto loyal to the Democratic Party, the Know-Nothings elected the governor, all three representatives, dominated the legislature, and returned John P. Hale to the Senate. Anti-immigrant fervor brought the Know-Nothings their highest numbers to that point, and some northerners were elected under the auspices of the new Republican Party.
1856 election was
assaulted with a walking cane by Democratic Rep.
Preston Brooks in the Senate chamber.|alt=Political cartoon Pierce fully expected to be renominated by the Democrats. In reality, his chances of winning the nomination (let alone the general election) were slim. The administration was widely disliked in the North for its position on the Kansas–Nebraska Act, and Democratic leaders were aware of Pierce's electoral vulnerability. Nevertheless, his supporters began to plan for an alliance with Douglas to deny James Buchanan the nomination. Buchanan had solid political connections and had been safely overseas through most of Pierce's term, leaving him untainted by the Kansas debacle. When balloting began on June 5 at the convention in
Cincinnati, Ohio, Pierce expected a plurality, if not the required two-thirds majority. On the first ballot, he received only 122 votes, many of them from the South, to Buchanan's 135, with Douglas and Cass receiving the rest. By the following morning fourteen ballots had been completed, but none of the three main candidates were able to get two-thirds of the vote. Pierce, whose support had been slowly declining as the ballots passed, directed his supporters to break for Douglas, withdrawing his name in a last-ditch effort to defeat Buchanan. Douglas, only 43 years of age, believed that he could be nominated in 1860 if he let the older Buchanan win this time, and received assurances from Buchanan's managers that this would be the case. After two more deadlocked ballots, Douglas's managers withdrew his name, leaving Buchanan as the clear winner. To soften the blow to Pierce, the convention issued a resolution of "unqualified approbation" in praise of his administration and selected his ally, former Kentucky Representative
John C. Breckinridge, as the vice-presidential nominee. Pierce endorsed Buchanan, though the two remained distant; he hoped to resolve the Kansas situation by November to improve the Democrats' chances in the general election. He installed
John W. Geary as territorial governor, who drew the ire of pro-slavery legislators. Geary was able to restore order in Kansas, though the electoral damage had already been done—Republicans used "Bleeding Kansas" and "Bleeding Sumner" (the brutal
caning of Charles Sumner by South Carolina Representative
Preston Brooks in the Senate chamber) as election slogans. The Buchanan/Breckinridge ticket was elected, but the Democratic percentage of the popular vote in the North fell from 49.8 percent in 1852 to 41.4 in 1856 as Buchanan won only five of sixteen free states (Pierce had won fourteen), and in three of those, Buchanan won because of a split between the Republican candidate, former California senator
John C. Frémont and the Know Nothing, former president Fillmore. Pierce did not temper his rhetoric after losing the nomination. In his final message to Congress, delivered in December 1856, he vigorously attacked Republicans and abolitionists. He took the opportunity to defend his record on fiscal policy, and on achieving peaceful relations with other nations. In the final days of the Pierce administration, Congress passed bills to increase the pay of army officers and to build new naval vessels, also expanding the number of seamen enlisted. It also passed a tariff reduction bill he had long sought. Pierce and his cabinet left office on March 4, 1857, the only time in U.S. history that the original cabinet members all remained for a full four-year term. ==Post-presidency (1857–1869)==